Positive returns.
In a year markets
delivered nothing.
Clearmind strategies delivered differentiated outcomes across risk profiles while benchmarks posted negative returns. Capital preservation met asymmetric alpha.
FY 2025–26 — A difficult year
for traditional portfolios.
FY 2025–26 was marked by persistent volatility, shallow trends, and sustained drawdowns across all major Indian equity indices. Traditional long-only strategies faced headwinds throughout the year.
All three major benchmarks — Nifty 50, Nifty 100, and Nifty 500 — closed the financial year in negative territory, with drawdowns exceeding 10% at their worst points.
In this environment, generating any positive return required either superior stock selection, active risk management, or a volatility-oriented strategy — all of which Clearmind deployed.
"Pain without reward" — the defining experience of passive benchmark exposure in FY 2025–26.
Alpha vs Nifty 50 (−4.22%)
Absolute & risk-adjusted metrics
across all strategies.
Absolute and risk-adjusted metrics across Polaris, Optimus, and headline benchmarks.
Outperformance vs Nifty 50. Positive returns in a negative year. Best Sortino in the universe at 1.28.
CAGR through volatility capture. Strong risk-adjusted returns despite episodic return profile.
Negative Sharpe across all indices. Similar drawdowns to Polaris — but with no reward for the pain taken.
How each strategy performed
and why.
Consistent compounding with controlled risk. Designed to outperform across full market cycles.
Capture volatility and generate asymmetric returns. Returns are non-linear and episodic by design.
Month-by-month returns
show where alpha was made.
Where the alpha came from
Three months — Apr, Oct, and Feb — accounted for the majority of total returns. This is the hallmark of an asymmetric, volatility-driven strategy: concentrated bursts, not linear growth.
Delivered most of the full-year return
April (+26.12%) and October (+25.43%) together account for the bulk of the 40.77% annual CAGR. The strategy captured high-volatility events with precision.
The largest single-month drawdown
−26.13% in November 2025 — occurring during a low-volatility / wrong-regime phase. This is expected behaviour for a volatility-capture strategy and was recovered in subsequent months.
The key insight
Optimus returns come in bursts, not linearly. Investors must expect periods of flat performance and sharp drawdowns between major events — that is the strategy working as designed.
Different strategies require
different expectations.
“Different strategies require different expectations. Misaligned expectations lead to poor investment decisions.”
Understanding what a strategy is designed to do — and what it is not — is the most important factor in determining whether it is right for your portfolio.
Built to operate across
market conditions.
Clearmind strategies are not dependent on favourable markets. In a year where benchmarks lost value, both strategies delivered — in their own distinct ways.